How long has it been since the last ABSOLUTE CASTAWAY post?
I told you I’m not leaving them behind.
Music genres are not a limit for this circle.
We already got to listen to their amazing gothic metal track Lost Chapter as well traditional/lyrical songs such as 待宵姫, 慟哭の杜 or とおりゃんせ or pop/rock tracks such as 世界が嫌いなキミへ, and today’s song, 花の咲く場所 -ハナノサクバショ-, is, once again, a completely different genre: Jazz/blues.
I love jazz & blues. Since I play the electric bass it’s one of the first genre I learned its theories and styles, and I grew so attached to it that it still remains, in my opinion, the most amusing genre to play.
Back on track, today’s song is also one of the best japanese jazzy song I ever heard, and that’s not only thanks to the amazing arrange provided by the composers, but mainly because of Nakae Mitsuki‘s vocals.
She tried gothic metal, her voice was perfect for the genre.
She tried traditional japanese folk music, she was perfect for it.
She tried pop / rock music, she was perfect for them.
And now, she’s singing for a jazz/blues song, and guess what? There couldn’t have been a better singer for this.
I love her voice, and that’s part of why I hate the fact that this circle is so unknown between doujin music fans.
They’re so good yet so underrated it makes me go mad.
Even the lyrics are pretty good, some parts of it can be one of those “inspirational quotes” you see on the internet, really.
The only thing I “don’t like” about this song is that voice at the beginning / ending of it.
It would have fit on other songs (mainly japanese styled ones), but not this one. Thank God it can be heard only twice in the whole song.
Also, the instruments are all amazing. The double bass can be heard so clearly it makes me happy. Yeah. Kinda.
But then again, her voice is the best thing of this song.
If her voice was a woman, I would marry her.
But wait, her voice actually comes from a woman.
…Okay, I think I’ve found my future wife.
Back on the lyrics one second: I couldn’t find a meaning to them, then I read them again. Hint on the last note, but there’s still a question for you.
The title “hana no saku basho”, means “the place where flowers bloom”.
Now, try to read the lyrics and think about them, and try to understand what place is this…
NOTES:
– At the beginning there’s a voice track that it’s not listed in the lyrics, but it’s repeated near the end, in the fourth stanza from the bottom.
– Can’t believe that 運命 (unmei) in the third stanza is read FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER IN HISTORY with its proper reading instead of “sadame”! Let’s throw a party!
– There are lots of parts that I had to translate adding more words in order to keep their meaning. So, this translation (in some parts) is more like a free one than a literal one.
– 暮れの秋に 女心は謎めき (kure no aki ni onnagokoro wa nazomeki) it’s interesting. That’s because it comes from a japanese expression “女心と秋の空”, meaning “a woman’s heart and autumn weather”, which implies how both of those two things are fickle. That’s why it talks out of the blue of a woman heart right after she said “kure no aki”.
– Last stanza (and several other stanzas) talks about money / buying / selling. For what I understood, this song seems to be talking about money and the relationship between money and people’s bounds. And it’s pretty sad but also so true it hurts.

First night, first encounter; Even if they’re so close to me
I can’t forgive not even the voices blending together;
In the midnight’s spring, at least inside this long dream,
Let me a last keep the memory of the shadows my finger pointed at

Second night, second encounter; Even if it’s so close to me
I can’t even realize my wish to touch your skin;
Are you concealing yourself right now, in this summer of closeness?
There’s no medicine to help the sickness of a heart burning in love…

【勝ってうれしい はないちもんめ
負けてくやしい はないちもんめ】

[katte ureshii hana ichimon me
makete kuyashii hana ichimon me]

“If I win I’d be happy, throw away one futile flower;
If I lose, I’d be sad, throw away one futile flower”

Third night, third encounter; whisper my name
As the feeling of your sad voice rises towards the heavens;
In this fall of sunset, the woman’s heart is a mystery
And I don’t know the place where my hands can move, where my feet stay on ground

My cracked little finger is hurting during the last night;
Is the gap filled with gold the gap where we are bound together?
As I wish to wait you eternally in the midst of this winter field
This world could turn into one where love won’t come true…

This song was requested by B016.
Never heard of this song, this circle, this album. Nothing about it.
It’s also really short (about 1:30), and it’s probably the request I’ve translated in the shortest time ever (personal record achieved).
My first impression was negative, because while I love screamo / scream vocal (Don’t forget this wordpress is named after Foreground Eclipse) the screams at the beginning of the song aren’t quite “my type” of screaming vocal.
It has to keep a melody, something that, initially, this song fails to keep.
But it catches back up really quick.
It may be short, but it’s a really powerful song. Just like its title.
It can seem strange to someone, but this kind of music helps me feeling relaxed.
I don’t know why, but I work this way.
Most of the people can feel 100% relaxed when listening to Mozart, Wagner, Beethoven, Čajkovskij, Bach, Chopin or other classical music geniuses, but I don’t.
There’s so much to concentrate on when listening to classical music that I simply can’t feel relaxed without trying to follow and understand their rhythm.
I can feel way more relaxed when listening to “more violent” music types by band such as Slipknot, Senses Fail, A Day to Remember, Avenged Sevenfold, Of Mice and Men, Bring Me The Horizon, Korn, Rage Against the Machine, Clockworks Tracer, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas or such.
I never understood why.
That’s probably because if the music is more “aggressive” it feels like I’m brushing away all my nervousness, just like punching a wall makes you calmer if enraged.
Kinda like that.
Except that I’m not fucking stupid to break my hand because I’m angry.
I actually almost broke my foot once, kicking a concrete block because I was angry.
So I’m still pretty retarded, but at least I hit my useless foot, not my precious hand.
Enough bullshit. I wrote too much.
Enjoy the lyrics!
NOTES:
– 道なき未知に導かれ (first stanza) wordplay! michi (road) + michi (unknown) + michi[biku] (to lead a way).
– At the end of the song, you can hear the 2 singers saying “プチカミロマンティカ” (puchikamiromantica), which is the name of the album that this songs opens, “Petit Kami Romantica”.

MN-logic24 – RISING GOD HAND

終わりなき旅の果てが
道なき未知に導かれ

owari naki tabi no hate ga
michi naki michi ni michibikare

The end of this endless voyage
Is lead to the unknown of a non-existing road

(on a side note, the haiku post raised a lot of views and was apreciated by lots of people in terms of likes / new blog follower, and I really apreciate that. Thanks a lot!)
I can’t deny that The Maid and the Pocket Watch of Blood is one of the best touhou music piece when it comes to arranges.
I like all of its arranges, and today’s post, 想うということ, is one of my favourite.
We’re talking about an alternative rock song by the RIDICULOUSLY-UNDERRATED cicle 回路-kairo-, and performed by 556t which is actually one of the best female vocalists out there, in the touhou doujin world.
I already translated some songs by this circle and I’m not thinking about leaving them behind, because there are a lot of untranslated songs by them and they’re always great.
In case you missed the other (few) posts, you can search for “kairo” in the search bar at the bottom of every page of this wordpress.
So… expect more kairo posts to come out in the future.
On a side note, back talking about The Maid and the Pocket Watch of Blood, it’s probably the theme which opened my path towards touhou doujin music.
I clearly remember one of the first touhou doujin album I’ve listened to was FROZEN FROG by Crows’Claw, which is still one of my favourite touhou metal/rock instrumental album of all time.
The track Maid Blood R’n’r was (and still is) amazing, and at the time I never actually listened to its original theme.
And then, after finding about the original track, I started looking for arranges of it, because I liked it a lot.
Its rhythm is simple yet catchy, so it’s pretty easy to arrange this song keeping a nice clean melody.
It’s not a theme which has lots of changes inside it or a theme that is structured in multiple sections, so I’m not that surprised that (99%) every arrange I heard of this theme are pretty good.
And in this song it’s marvelously arranged both in the main riff and when it comes the acoustic section. Bravo, kairo!
But we’re not here talking about tastes, after all we all have our own, and that’s cool.
Let’s say I have nothing more to say about this.
Just listen to this arrange, if you haven’t yet: it’s time well spent!
…Get it? Time? Sakuya? Hahaha…
…Kill me.
NOTES:
– Remember that 運命 (unmei) that is read as “sadame” and appears in every thing that involves japanese, for some reason? Well, first stanza: sadame is back.
– 願い (negai) & 想い (omoi) in the third stanza. Negai means “wish”, “desire”, while “omoi” can both mean the same thing as well as “thought”, “memory”. I kept the meaning the same, but keep this in mind.
– 宙 (sora) is wrote with an unusal kanji rather than the classic 空 (sora), meaning sky. It’s the same kanji from the word 宇宙 (uchuu), meaning “space”, so I figured a wider idea of a sky fit better than the simple word “sky”. Thus, I choose “heaven”. But keep in mind that it should simply be “sky”, I’m just stupid.
– 欠けてゆく (kakete yuku) the word “kakeru” could have at least 1000 meanings, but I only heard “kakete yuku” when refering to a “kakete yuku tsuki” (waning moon). Here, there’s no “moon” (tsuki), but there’s “thing” (mono), so i figured it may kept this meaning because, you know… the moon, Luna Dial, Sakuya… it can kinda make sense.
– かざし (kasashi) in the last stanza is not wrote with kanji. Normally, “kazashi” is a word used for “hairpin”, but it didn’t make sense. There’s also the verb “kazasu” whose suspensive form is “kazashi”, that could mean “having your hands up your head” or “holding someone’s hand out”. I prefered using this, though it may not be right.

回路-kairo- – 想うということ

あなたが見つめる先
光満ち溢れ

anata ga mitsumeru saki
hikari michiafure

What you see before you
Is full of light

叶わぬ 運命
けれど笑いかけるだけ

kanawanu sadame
keredo waraikakeru dake

It’s a destiny that won’t happen,
But I can’t help but laugh at this

あなたの願い
わたしの想い
矛盾の夢

anata no negai
watashi no omoi
mujun no yume

Your wish,
My desire,
A contradictory dream

伸ばしたこの手
届かず 宙を仰ぎ
空虚を掴む

nobashita kono te
todokazu sora o aogi
kuukyo o tsukamu

This hand I held out
Is pointing up the heavens I can’t reach
Seizing the emptiness

The childish back proceeding while dragging along her shadow…
As it gets close to me, a drop falls down;
That sword with which I promised to keep protecting you
Is the beloved figure which bid me farwell with open arms.

Preface

Here it is, the first monthly post of the Haiku project that (This month aside) will feature on foregroundnoises every 19th of each month.
Be sure to read everything about it on this page: 俳句プロジェクト (Haiku project).
So, being this the first post, I’d like to add some haikus that aren’t particularly linked to a single topic or mood.
I usually write poetry in italian and I love to write things down when I don’t know how to express what I’m feeling about a certain something, and that helped me build a “collection” of poems and haikus that lead me into trying to be part of contests / poetry prizes.
And I actually was apreciated by the public! But, as I stated on other posts, that’s only about italian poetry. This whole haiku project involves italian (which I’m familiar with), english and japanese.
While I’m not english I’ve kinda grew up with it, with all the english videogames, music and whatever, so I can almost fully understand it as if it was my native language.
Japanese? Still studying it, still basics imho, but I’d really love to get more and more deeper into it, so don’t expect much from my japanese haikus: they won’t be nothing sophisticated and will obviously be written in modern japanese.
Anyway, the point is that, italian haikus aside, english and japanese ones will be something “new” to me, and I really hope you’ll like them.
As I was trying to write before, being this the first post I won’t focus on a specific topic.
The haikus featuring on this post will have various themes which goes through my experience of life, with its negative and positive sides, as well as the importance of certain emotions and states of mind and the struggle to find the inner peace in the midst of a chaotic world populated by people which helps you get up when you’re low and others that laugh at you as they throw you down the cliff.
Life, up and downs. Pretty general and it can involve mainly anything.
I really don’t know how I should build up next posts, if will it be okay to give them a certain topic or making them more free just like this one.
We’ll see what’ll happen!
Anyway, as you read before, this post will feature 10 english haikus, 3 in italian, 3 in japanese and 3 from famous haiku poets, and the whole post will be just like a… storytelling.
I wanted to make them feel like a normal conversation between me and you, filled up with haikus here and there.
But also a way I directly can speak to the readers. Everything I wrote in there is also my experience which I’d love to share with everyone, not just sentences put in there randomly. This actually means a lot to me, and I really do hope whoever reads it could feel at least a little close to what I wrote.
I don’t know if I’ll keep this style for the next posts, I think I might end up being like a broken record if this style will last for too long.
We’ll see, we’ll see.
So, here are some of my (relatively) freshly wrote english / japanese haikus as well as some dated italian haikus (I wrote tons of those!)
Hope you’ll enjoy this!

Part 1

We all have bad days and good days. Sometimes we have days so good they make us think our life is the most beautiful thing we could have wished for, and it feels as if they are erasing all of our worst memories and times we had…

But life isn’t always so harsh. Sometimes even if bad things happen, it may just be a phase, something we must endure in order to go on.

“Signals of sunlight
As a thunder roars far away:
Soon it will be over”

Truth is, things that happen in our lives shape us into something else, as we keep carrying that pain, burden, joy or everything else on our shoulders.

“I can’t bear the shame
Of covering all these scars
That prove who I am”

“I move my fingers
On a stringless rusty harp:
Vividly, a hymn”

And at this point I don’t think is unnatural to start wondering about who we are or which one is our true self.

“How should I figure
The picture of a mosaic
With missing tassels?”

We all have been through this all, and it’s not something pleasant at all.
It’s difficult to part away from things we think we need, but do we really need them? That’s what I’ve been thinking about, lately.
What do we really need?
Maybe just some time to breathe and to realize that we’re more simple than our mind leads us into thinking.

“Greed is our demon:
We only need our skin
To feel the warm breeze”

I felt so incomplete. I never actually healed from some scars that I got from people I loved and that used to love me, and I focused my whole living on this.
I wasted my time and possibilities just for a mere share of hope, which is some of the most cruel things if it ends up becoming our only solid anchor.

“Glaciers keep melting
As I wait for snow to pour
On my mind’s desert”

So… I think the most important thing in life is to try to apreciate who you are, to be proud by yourself and enjoy your time alone. That doesn’t mean you should be egoistic or you should avoid others, but loving yourself can help you to better understand others and make your life easier and less stressful. It’s hard, but it’s the right thing one can do. You’ll never understand how to feel at ease with the world if you don’t know how to be at ease with yourself.

“On a music sheet
Our soul is not made of notes:
It lies between them”

It’s difficult, but not impossible. Music and poetry helped me understand this all, and thinking about it, it’s right. I am the only person that will stay with me forever, and if I don’t learn how to like myself, I can’t like anyone else too.
Just leave everything and think of it for a while.
You may understand too the importance of self appreciation.
But then again, it was thanks to poems and music and art that I was able to understand more about myself and expand my views, and I’ll never be thankful enough.

“The sun is setting
Beyond the horizon line
I still see its path”

…And that’s why I thought about starting this project here. Hope you enjoyed reading this all!
Now, from next month on I’ll probably change the post structure, making part 1 more like part 2.
Consider this month’s post to be like “the one who started it all”.

Part 2

Part 2 will feature 6 Haikus, three in italian and three in japanese.
I write poetry in italian very often, so the haiku featuring in this section are actually haikus that I already wrote time ago and decided to share on this blog. Same thing for japanese haikus, even though I started writing japanese poetry only recently compared to the italian ones.
They’ll have translation (and romanization) and will only feature a small title (translated / romanized).
There won’t be an analysis / preface, for the title itself is enough.
Obviously, the 5-7-5 system will only work in the original language, meaning that the english translation won’t have the 5-7-5 scheme.
There will be a total of 6 haikus in order not to make this whole haiku post longer than the great wall of China.
Hope you’ll enjoy those too!

Part 3

Here we are, last part of this post.
Every month I select a few Haikus from great authors of the past or simply modern Haikus which caught my attention.
I’d like to expand this last section into a more “personal” one.
In other words, I’d love if you would send me some haikus via mail / twitter / comment or whatever.
I’ll add the ones I like the most in this last part of the monthly haiku’s project.
More info at the end of this section!

Being this the first post, I couldn’t open it without a Haiku wrote by the father of haikus, Matsuo Bashō.

This is the very last Haiku Matsuo Bashō ever wrote. It was actually wrote on his dying bed, where he was stuck due a severe stomach illness.
It’s a beautiful yet sad haiku that makes me think about how fragile life is.
Death can come anytime, and what can we do about it? We have to accept it even if we’re not done living, even if our dreams are not yet fullfilled.
But on the other side, it’s a message of hope, a haiku that puts together the dried scenery of withered fields along with the peaceful idea of dreams wandering freely on it.
I think it’s one of the most meaningful haiku Bashō could have wrote, and it had a huge impact to me.

“After tsunami,
Sunrise blinks above water,
Life begins again”

(Chrys Romeo, Iasi, Romania)

OM Times magazine released a collection of beautiful haikus to support Japan after the Tōhoku earthquake/tsunami disaster of 2011, in which people from all over the word composed poetry to honor the land of the rising sun.
I suggest to read them all because they’re really beautiful.
This one, for some reason, hit me harder than the others.
What I love about Japan is how the island itself has a difficult geography, vulnerable to water and earth disaster that keep happening year after year, but it never falls down before them.
Japan and japanese people have the strenght to carry on and keep putting back together what was once throw down.
I think it’s beautiful and more country should learn by them. More people should be able not to give up but to always stand up, no matter how many tragedies strikes on us.
“Life begins again” is a very meaningful sentence.
I think that ife is not “continuing” just because the word “continuing” doesn’t fit in the haiku, I rather think that life “begins” anew because the Japanese won’t forget what happen, but they’ll begin again to be what they used to be, carrying the wounds of what happen and being ready for what could happen.
That’s how life should be, and that’s why I love this haiku in particular.

“Stop if lost for words
Breathe, speak to me, keep talking
The show must go on“

This is a haiku I’ve read some time ago on an amazing wordpress page, defusingchaos.wordpress.com.
It actually is a combination of titles from Pink Floyd‘s song, and I found this technique to be absolutely brilliant and beautiful.
Just click each of this words to understand: stopiflost for words; breathe, speak to me, keep talking, the show must go on.
I love Pink Floyd and I think that this way of writing haiku combining sentences from amazing groups such as Pink Floyds is outstanding and should be done more often.
The wordpress actually did more haiku with other songs from other singers / groups, but this one was the one that caught my attention the most.
Stillness, movement, action, and again, time to think, time to speak; breathing so you won’t lose control, take a pause to avoid saying what you’d regret, but, once again, not stopping forever, for our life is a show, and the show has to keep going on.
This haiku is pure genius.

終

So, I hope you enjoyed this sort-of-poetry wall of text. Fear not, it will be just a monthly thing!

As I stated before, I’d also like to add more haikus on part 3, not just poems that I’ve found online, on books or anywhere else, but haikus you wrote.
Writing haiku is something anybody can do, and if you’d like to give it a try and don’t know from where to start from, just read here on the bottom section to get the picture.
I’d really love to get some haikus from whoever reads this post or other posts by me.
You can send me your haikus to my email adress, twitter or facebook (contacts down below), and the ones I like the most will be published in the upcoming posts.
I’d really love to keep the modern haiku tradition alive.
We really need poetry in a world where everything else is attempting to kill it.
We must help leave it untouched and gracious.
And I’d love to “fight” this “war” with you!
So, just try to close your eyes, think about what you think it’s important to think about (wtfdidIjustwrote) and try to write down your feelings: If a poem, a haiku, a song or every other writing comes from your heart, than it’s already good enough.

This song was requested by Dolce.
And I can remember who gave me the lyrics for it, so thanks, guyIdontremember!
This is a Kancolle arrange, and I finally understand my feeling towards this serie: I don’t give a sh-
I mean, I do enjoy its art, some of its BGMs and the characters’ design, but that apart, it doesn’t make sense to me.
I don’t really like it, and whoever says that kancolle is the next touhou is clearly blind or whatever.
That apart, Kancolle arranges are pretty damn good.
There are a lot of arranges that I like and I wish to translate, so I’m not giving up translating Kancolle stuff.
I just wanted to point out that, music aside, I don’t like it that much.
I never accepted that all of those cute anime girls were actually ships, and while on Touhou there are things such as humanized musical instrument / umbrellas / stuff, it doesn’t look strange not even a bit to me, compared to how kancolle does.
Anyway, some words about this post.
I already translated 番ヒノ翼 from the same album, and just like this one, the lyrics aren’t easy at all.
Katakana everywhere, special readings and strange kanjis make everything a lot more difficult than it already is.
But then again, I DO like challenges.
Also, this is an arrange from that theme… can’t remember the name. The one featured in the spring event some years ago, maybe? I like that theme a lot!
I’ll leave some notes on some parts of this arrange right there!
PS: In this song… The bass is AMAZING. Just wait for the fourth stanza and bshqeyrbsznjdjs.
PPS: This may be my worst (aka most difficult / wtf) translation EVER.
NOTES:
– 恋登り (koinobori) is a strange word. It implies the word “koi” (love) and “nobori” (to ride, to go up, to rise), but on the other hand, it sounds exactly like 鯉幟 (koinobori), the name of those carp-shaped wind chimes which are made float during the kodomo-no-hi (children’s day). I kept the other meaning, but it may have some implications with this tradition. I guess.
– 恋桜 (koizakura) this word appears both in the title and often in the song. I don’t really know how should I translate it, being “koi” “love” and “zakura” a compound form of “sakura”, the japanese cherry tree. I decided to make it into “loving sakura” or “lovely sakura”. “loving” was a bit more fitting, so I left this one in the translation.
– “silver time” in the translation is a literal translation of 銀の時. I can’t think of anything else. It could may be refering to the war, which makes a lot of sense giving the context.
– 刹那 (setsuna) means “moment”, but also “sadness”. Here, it’s written with the kanjis for “moment”, but I think it fits better to add both, being the stanza about chance of meeting and hope (which are both sad imho).
– Katakana appears randomly in some sentences. On the booklet, the furigana was entirely in katakana. The reason for this is unknown.
– 神楽歌 (kagura uta) the Kagura is a shinto / traditional type of song in japanese culture. I left it untouched.
– 生命 (inochi) in the third stanza is read as “inochi”, which is the normal reading ONLY for 命, the second kanji, while it should be read “seimei”. The meaning of “life”, however, stays the same.
– 旋律 (senritsu) in the third stanza, same thing. Should be read “senritsu” but is read as “merodi” (katakana version of the word “melody”). Both words mean the same thing, once again.
– こゝろ (kokoro) in the third stanza, is written using ゝ, an old fashioned symbol which is read as the previous kana. Nowadays, japanese people don’t use it.
– 澪標 (miotsukushi) I can’t explain in english what are those. Just… look here on Google images. Too many goodamn naval-themed words I can’t translate / comprehend. I’m sorry.
– 運命 (unmei) third stanza too. Somebody, please, tell me why this fucking compound is ALWAYS read as “sadame” (not the original reading) but NEVER as “unmei” (original reading). I can’t understand this. Help me. In this song is read as “sadame” too, and I swear it appears as “sadame” in at least other 5 posts I already made. Just why..?
– 宿命 (shukumei) fifth stanza (or sixth?), ditto. Should be read “shukumei”, but japanese guys likes that fucking “sadame” word more than they love fucking sushi. I’m sorry that was racist. I love you, japanese people.

A Kagura song burns my overflowing life with love
Like a pattern from a love melody I used to hear;
What’s left in this transient fate of my heart falling like a flower is just this song,
Bloom fully, oh fragrant spring wind!

The scattering lamps are lightened up by the raging fire of love
And the Miotsukushi are fighting for your sake;
I pray to the azure sky for those wings I dreamed of,
As I follow the path that white clouds are showing me

This destiny, a guidepost of steel, is bursting up my chest;
My heart is dancing to a rhythm of a love song
That blows strongly from the heavens;
The iron, the violence, The cry of crickets…
A sad, golden wind is rising…

I’ll let those feelings for you ride the wind carrying love, a loving sakura blooming in profusion even when is cold…
This heart, falling like a flower, aah… the colour of a transient maiden is a song;
Bloom fully, grow splendid, oh fragrant spring wind, oh song of a loving sakura!

Preface: I’m finally done with my exams! …or not. Actually I have one last exam left, but it’ll be on September 29th, so I have nothing to worry about right now.
Anyway.
Today’s post is nothing new.
Everyone probably already know this song and has read a translation of it somewhere else.
But I don’t really care: I had to translate it by myself again, just for today, just for this blog.Perfect Day is surely my favourite Supercell‘s song, but also one of the best japanese song I’ve ever listened to.
Since the day I first listened to it, I fell in love with it.
It was almost “a perfect song”, to me.
The only thing that it lacked was a meaning.
I listened to every single note and tried to understand every single line of the song, but for how beautiful I thought they were, I never actually felt close to this song on an emotional level.
I never linked this song to anything nor anyone.
That until today.
Because, as the album from where this song comes from is named after, “today is a beautiful day“.
Or better, today is the memorial of one of the most important and beautiful day in my life.
I know, I know. You’re already sick of reading me writing about nostalgia, love, distance and shit like that.
And you’re totally right. But I can’t help it.
I just realized the meaning of this song and why it means so much to me.
I finally understood why these fingertips pointed at a sky I can’t reach, why I shouldn’t care if a meteorite was to be about to destroy the Earth as I write all of this down, why I should never forget what made me feel happy to be alive.
Maybe this life is just moments and memories and nothing is going to be nothing more than ephemeral rays of happiness, but they still exist.
And we should live for those moments we had and the moments we’ll have.
Because we’re all afraid to lose the persons we care about, we’re terrified by the idea of being parted from those who mean a lot to us.
That’s natural and fucking understandable.
But even if we’re far away, unreachable, poles apart under the same infinite blue sky, the what we gave them and what we received from them is not going to fade away.
It’ll just turn into memories that will help us get the warmth we need when everything gets cold and lonely, and that will help us finding our way to keep living our lives to the fullest.
That’s what Perfect Day is to me.
A song of nostalgia, of love, of courage, of strenght.
A song that now makes a lot of sense, and that I can’t leave outside this wordpress.
Not today.
More “normal” posts coming soon, fear not!

Such a perfect day
As I stop and gaze up the sky
On its blue, blue canvas
A single thread of clouds runs through,
Just like the same sky from that day:
So, now, I reached out my hand just one more time,
I reached out my hand

I think it might be a good idea to write some stuff about this website past, present and future.
So yeah, first of all I’m done with exams (actually there’s still one left, but not it’s not right now) so there are actually things that will change accordingly to this.
I’ll get back on working on the missing requests and try to make the translation pace faster than it was during those past months.
But here’s a few other things I’m yet trying to figure out / find a way to add to this wordpress.
As you probably read before, I want to make my Gaki no Tsukai clips upload rate higher.
Considering that I usually spend a lot of time finding clips / typesetting them, keeping the uploads monthly would be perfect.
So, basically I’m not trying to be an avid uploader, someone who uploads weekly or more than once per week. I just want my youtube channel not to fall under tons of dust.
But that’s nothing new, and you can read more, if you’re willing to lend me a hand, in this post.
And here’s the main dish.
I’m sorry, but I wrote more than I should have for this part. Close this tab, NOW!
…Or read it. Maybe you’ll learn something..?
As somebody (few people) might know, I’m italian, and as somebody (anyone) might know, I enjoy writing stuff in italian.
I actually won more than a prize in italian modern poetry contests and I enjoy a lot the (almost lost) art of poetry, both reading and writing.
Of course I’m not going to say that this wordpress will change to a total different wordpress with contents that differ completely from the previous ones.
I’d like to make an experiment, though.
While I enjoy writing poetry in italian, I never actually tried to make poetry in english or japanese.
But I mean, the languages may change, but the mind stays the same, right? I’d like to try.
I started writing poetry naturally, because I felt like it.
And I noticed that people actually liked what I wrote and how I thinked of some things.
I’m not saying this can work out or I can become a master of whatever, I just want to do what I like with what I like.
Anyways.
After getting in contact with japanese culture, I started to read japanese poetry.
My first contact was with the Waka poetry.
Waka poems are composed of 5 phrases with a 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic metre.
I read wakas from the greatest and most apreciated collections of Japan, such as wakas by Fujiwara no Teika, or taken from various poets from Kokin and Shinkokin Wakashuu or Man’youshuu.
While I can’t say I disliked Waka poetry, I felt like it had a great potential, but poorly developed.
Being a relative short poetry style but having 5 sentence to fill, the Waka poetry can sometime appear bizarre and relatively weird to a reader with or without “experience” on reading poetry.
While some wakas I read are really good, most of them just don’t feel right to me.
Wakas are (almost) always 5-7-5-7-7,and-that-means-that-you
should-al-ways-write-a-wa-ka
fol-lo-wing-this-odd
pat-tern-that-can-some-times-end
up-being-mis-lead-ing-and-weird
…I’m sorry. But the fact is that wakas always starts really good, but ends up getting weirder, at least to me.
Generally they’re parted between the first block (5-7-5) and the second (7-7), but it’s really hard to link those two blocks toghether in meaning.
It’s like talking about the sound of the wind at the beginning and ending up completing the poem with two phrases that are totally unrelated to it.
Usually, the relation between those two blocks are not so obvious on purpose.
Poets likes to play with the reader, writing something that seems unrelated but it’s actually connected very closely with the previous block.
Like, associating the suffering from a lost love (first block) with the water drops running down a gutter (second block).
They’re obviously linked, but sometimes it just sounds too weird.
I still found this kind of poetry pretty weird (not that I enjoy it), but I really liked how the japanese poets were able to express powerful feelings in the first block of wakas.
Just 3 phrases can be poetry? Yes, they can. I liked that a lot.
So, basically, as some of you may already understood, Waka lead me into discovering the fine art of Haikus.
I started writing Haikus as a joke.
I used to write down Haikus at night when I couldn’t get any sleep, and they were just a bunch of stupid things that I thinked of and wrote down just to read them to my friends the next day and see if I could make them laugh.
I could. I felt like a God. Or something like that.
The Haiku poetry is basically just like the first block of waka poetry, meaning that you don’t have to add more (seemingly random) phrases to make it longer.
5-7-5 and you can write down basically EVERYTHING.
The power of haikus is immense.
There are two types of Haikus:
1) Haikus whose structure is a continuum, meaning that the three phrases that appears on it are connected between them as if it was a longer sentence, and
2) Haikus whose three phrases are actually three distincted blocks, connected by meanings / contents / mental links.
I like them both. Japanese people like the second type more. I’m not japanese. Duh.
Anyway. I keep writing Haikus each time I feel like it.
That’s the good thing about Haikus. You don’t have to spend a huge amount of time thinking about them: they just came out so naturally you don’t have to destroy your brain thinking about what to say or how to say it.
While I always wrote Haikus in italian (and I plan to release a book about them once I graduate) (but that was supposed to be a secret, FUCK), I also practiced in english and japanese, and I’d like to put some Haikus in this wordpress too.
My plan is yet to be defined, but I have some ideas.
I’d like to keep the Haiku posts few, like once per month (this way people won’t get pissed and I can write Haikus down more freely), and add to each post some Haikus in english and some in japanese (with translations) wrote by me, as well as some selected Haikus from great poets of the past or from the present time.
Each month will have a certain theme, and the haiku posted will follow it.
I don’t know if I’ll start this in July or in August, but I think it’s the right thing to do.
Because it’s something I love to do and I want to share with everyone, and because I’m sick of people saying that “poetry is dead”.
I don’t think poetry is dead, I just think that it got way better at hiding, and we got way lazier to try to search for it.
This post is long and I’m not entirely sober. Recently I’m not writing ANYTHING while sober. I should rename this wordpress into “whatthefuckamIwritingfuckinguniversitydrivingmetoalcoholism.wordpress.com”. Yeah, I should.
Hope you won’t mind this little thing, and I hope you’ll enjoy my next song lyrics posts as well as those (occasional) haiku posts.
Have a nice day / night / whatever, and see you tomorrow with a new post (that I HAVE TO add), followed by the return of the (almost) daily basis-isisiissh(?) request / touhou stuff / random japanese songs.
Smell ya later!
(forgive my grammar I swear I’m exhausted)

And for more news / shit just follow my twitter. Everything I post here, goes there faster than Sanic the hehdhgohd. @FGRNDNoises

Yeah, I know that…
1) I still have request to deal with.
2) I’m more dead than alive, lately.
But come on! Nah, just kidding. I know no one’s rushing me. I’m just… tired. And I really don’t know how should I have started this post.
Anyways, my last exam will be on July the 17th, so hopefully I’ll post more from that day on.
I also planned some news that I’ll discuss further, but I don’t know how much I’m going to regret (or not) the things I want to do next, so for now I won’t say a thing.
Let’s leave everything untouched until the next wordpress update (which was scheduled for July the 15th but will probably end up starting some day after it). I think I need a little bit more time to think about everything.
Anyway, screw news (at least for now) and shitty intros (I should stop).
Today’s post is an old song by EastNewSound, “Long time ago“.
I double dare you to find an arrange from 小さな欲望の星空 more creative than this one.
Its rhythm makes you want to dance, the singer is good as hell (and her vocal pitch is godlike) and the lyrics aren’t half bad, even though, as always in japanese music, happy rhythm doesn’t mean happy lyrics.
Especially the very last stanza. I like that a lot.
This song is a quite nice hybrid between genres and feeling it tries to convey.
Also, it always sounded like a summer song to me (and I really don’t know why), so I think it’s perfect I got to finally translate it here and now, in this midsummer’s night dream.
I also noticed how 99,9% of Touhou arrange posts are Miko‘s theme / stage theme arranges.
Way to go, Prince Shoutoku! Just kiddin’. I hate you. I had to study you for at least 5 university exams. I have enough.
NOTES:
– 懐かしさ覚え (natsukashisa oboe) I translated this as “entwined in nostalgia”, while is not correct. It should be “that remembers nostalgia”, but I really didn’t like it. Also, it’s not quite right even in this way, being the verb not in a relative form. I simply liked the way I wrote more than the way it should have been.

Wishes that overflow turn into stardust whose radiance obstructs the night,
I had the feeling that they’ve always been there
Just like the tale I kept dreaming about;
And you, gazing to the distance, what are you looking at right now?

The light which radiated in the darkness only filled the number of my thoughts,
As if you were singing about how both are important;
I couldn’t understand the meaning behind that gentle tear
As in the sky reflected in your eyes there was only stardust

懐かしさ覚え 切なく胸を締め付けて 何か聞こえた

natsukashisa oboe setsunaku mune o shimetsukete nani ka kikoeta

As I press hard on my grieving chest entwined in nostalgia, I heard something.

In a darkness that swallows even light itself
You were there, shining like you couldn’t keep on, and without hesitating,
You were whispering to those radiating far away memories floating in the sky
“May my wishes be fulfilled…”

流れてく時に いつしか慣れてゆくけれど 忘れたくない・・・

nagareteku toki ni itsushika nareteyuku keredo wasuretakunai…

“I’ll get used to the flowing time before I’ll realize it, but I don’t want to forget…”

This song was requested by Eiki.Elope With Thy Locus… Well, even if no one would have requested it, I’d probably translated it by myself.
This song came out some time before the full CD release. I remember watching a video on niconico which featured this song along with its lyrics (And I was tempted to start writing them down back then).
Anyway, the lyrics are provided as usual by Violet and her awesomeness.
Listening to CLOCKWORKS TRACER (hey, check out, guys, I learned how to write their fucking name!) I realized a lot of things about them and also about music in general.
For example, how they’re just a doujin band when their rhythm are very complex and well executed, while there are official recognized bands which in terms of music are way inferior to them (and this applies to a lot of doujin music artist).
But also how it’s difficult to describe CLOCKWORKS TRACER’s music.
There are some songs by them that are aggressive, others that are calm, others that makes you want to scream and other that makes you want to close your eyes and breathe.
I think one of the most interesting component of CLOCKWORKS TRACER is WheatherH herself.
Comparing her to other doujin singers is really easy.
There are lots of touhou-doujin-singers that you always recognize when you listen to a song, even without knowing who is singing it.
WheatherH has a pretty unique style for her songs, it’s pretty impressive. Of course is recognizable, but not as much as other singers which sound always the same.
And Yapan is da man, friggin’ love him.
I can’t say I love him more than I loved Teto‘s screams when Foreground Eclipse was still a thing, but he comes right after him.
So, keep rocking CLOCKWORKS TRACER. I’m here cheering for ya!
Oh and, yeah, the song is an arrange from Japanese Saga, a theme I think not even ZUN is aware of. It’s not specifically a certain character’s theme, so I choosed a pic featuring chains, madness, creepyness… By the way, the girl in the picture is the girl appearing in Dolls in Pseudo-Paradise‘s cover jacket.
NOTES:
軌跡 (kiseki) is an interesting choice. It means “locus” (which is also in the song’s title), but it sounds exactly just like the word 奇跡 (kiseki), which means “miracle”. Being the song previously refering to the wish to be set free from a jail, I think that’s a pretty clever choice, being that there are dozen of other terms to say “locus” or such, in japanese. In fact, on the last stanza, the word “kiseki” is repeated, but this time with the kanjis meaning “miracle”.

CLOCKWORKS TRACER – Elope With Thy Locus

Now we arise to take our path back
Now we return, armed with only the truth
Now we arise to take our path back
Now we revive to defend all we have
Now we arise to take our path back
Now we return, armed with only the truth
Now we arise to take our path back
Now we revive to defend all we have

First of all: That’s not a translation post / a post related to japanese music whatsoever.
As someone who follows my blog or my youtube page already knows, I’m translating Gaki no Tsukai clips by years.
What is Gaki no Tsukai? I’m not wasting any time explaining that, just google it and you won’t regret it.
So, what’s this post about? Let’s try to explain.

Fansubbing & Encoding

I started fansubbing 2-3 years ago for fun and I noticed that people actually watched my translated videos and enjoyed them a lot, and that’s amazing.
I learned by myself how to add subtitles, how to set the “right” timing and how to encode everything at the end, but it was annoying the first time and annoying even today.
I won’t lie if I say that the most difficult thing about fansubbing is timing the subtitles instead of translating what the guys in the videos are saying.
I struggled a bit, but I managed to upload a bunch of subbed clips on my channel, and eventually I got over 1000 subscribers (which is a lot to me, considering how this started so suddenly and without no one helping me).
And I’m not considering quitting. I love Gaki no Tsukai and I love to spread some new clips to gaki fans who can’t speak or understand japanese.
Oh, by the way, I helped translating 1 hour of the Earth Defense Force Batsu Game with Team Gaki, but on my youtube channel (due copyright issues / complaining and sh*t) I only upload short clips of Gaki.
Anyway, while I’d like to keep translating and having a frequent upload pace, life is life and a lot of stuff comes in the way.
I’m graduating this year and I’m studying a lot in order to be able to do so… And than there’s this blog’s translations (which don’t take me much time as timing subtitles does…), books to read, friends to meet, graduation thesis to write, concerts to perform with my band, hobbies and stuff that leaves me only a few spare time that I don’t like to spend doing something I don’t like to do.
And while I like translating, I DON’T like timing.

Timing

“There’s the rub”, would write Shakespeare.
Truth is, I suck at timing subtitles, and I usually spend more than 2 hours for just a 1 minute clip. That’s crazy and tires me up to death.
I recently uploaded a short clip just as a sign, like “Hey guys, I’m not dead yet, but, y’know, I suck at timing subtitles and I won’t fucking stand a clip longer than a minute, I’m sorry”.
But hey! I’m doing this for free! I don’t want to die timing!
On another clip (and on this blog) I wrote about the fact that I’m looking for someone to help me timing my clips.
Read HERE for more, but let me explain it further. (CLICK HERE TO READ)
I don’t think I’m able to be the leader of a fansub group (as much as I wish to be one), having tons of stuff to do.
That’s why this project is not a “fansub team” project, but just clips uploaded on my channel, by me.
My channel grew a lot and I think it can grow more, so it will be a shame to leave it as it is by now.
If you’re good at timing subtitle and want to help me spreading Gaki no Tsukai, just let me know!
Just read the other post I linked before to read the instructions. You’ll be credited, so don’t worry!

FAQ

Q: Why are those clips so short?
A: Mainly because of two reasons. First of all, if youtube notices that a full episode is uploaded, the chances that it’ll get removed will be higher than a short one. Second, because, as I stated before, I suck at timing and I really hate doing it, so I stick to short clips so I can upload without spending a year timing the subtitles and losing my hair due nervousness.

Q: What’s wrong with the videos’ quality?
A: Yeah, uhm, again, two reasons. First, just like before, higher quality means that the clip is more easy to be found and more similar to the clip aired on television. Just so you know, subtitling and uploading isn’t actually something that should be encouraged, but we’re fan and we’re doing what fans do! …But youtube doesn’t like this, so if it finds out I uploaded a HQ rip from a japanese tv show, he fucks me up.
Second reason is… I don’t know. I mean, I try my best trying to keep my video quality not high but not so low either. Usually I try to keep it between 360p and 480p (which is medium-low), but somehow during the upload process something always goes wrong and yeah… quality drops to 240p and sometimes to 144p.
I don’t really know, I’m technologically retarded.

Q: Will you translate the full episode from where this clip comes from?
A: Uh… it depends. If the full episode is around 20 minutes, not HQ and (most important) already timed/typesetted by someone else, yeah, I’d love to! If that’s not the case… I’m sorry, I won’t.

Q: From which episode does this clip come from?
A: Most of the time you just have to read the description to answer that question. But sometimes I don’t know. I just happen to find on the internet some clips that catch my attention and I start translating them without knowing what they are or where they come from.

Q: Will you translate X?
A: Will you typeset/time X for me?

Projects

There are actually lots of project I planned working at, but couldn’t because the clips were long and I couldn’t stand timing 24 friggin’ minutes of japanese people talking.
I just… I can’t time subtitles. I’m sorry.
Here are some of the clips that I planned subbing, and I still am.
So, if you’re interested in lending me a hand, you can already start timing / typesetting the subs (.ass files) and send them to me!
– ガキの使い おもしろ廊下歩きコンテスト (Gaki no Tsukai – Funny Corridor Walking Contest)
– ガキの使い 藤原の500のコト (Gaki no Tsukai – 500 Things About Fujiwara)
– ガキの使い 松本 挑戦 (Gaki no Tsukai – Matsumoto Challenge) (EVERY UNSUBBED EPISODE)
– キキシリーズ (Kiki Series) (EVERY UNSUBBED EPISODE)
– ガキの使い コスプレバスツアー (Gaki no Tsukai – Cosplay Bus Tour) (EVERY UNSUBBED EPISODE)
– ガキの使い 七変化 (Gaki no Tsukai – ShichiHenge) (EVERY UNSUBBED EPISODE)
Obviously those are only few of the clips I’d like to translate.
If you’re willing to help me, you also get the right to choose which Gaki clip (not only those listed here) we should work to.

There’s really nothing else to add.
Once again, to get a clearer picture read HERE.
Hope you’ll help me, let’s work together!
I actually found someone who wanted to help me, but one has disappeared and the other… I don’t remember. Truth is, I’m still searching for helpers, and I’d love to work with you, and you, and you too!

Contacts

Here’s a tutorial to how to contact me (people always find istructions VERY hard).

Prerequisites:
– Being able to read
– Being able to read and understand
– Being able to read and understand and read once more so you’re really sure you understood what you just read

You can ask me everything you want in the mail / messages. We’ll talk about what to do and decide together which clip we should start to work to. Lending me a hand doesn’t mean being bounded to my translations. In other words, you’re not obliged to keep typesetting for me! You can also typeset a clip and then get the f*ck back to your home planet far far away in the galaxy! That’s totally cool!
You’re basically help me when you want to: I can’t force you to continue or to do what I want to do.
I hope this post doesn’t sound stupid / pretentious, but I’m really looking forward to working with other Gaki fans who share my passion.
Let’s keep subbing and spreading the love!

And keep an eye to my channel: マウロ (Shion)
(this post was created in order to put it under my videos descriptions AKA those things that no one ever reads)